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Monday, August 2, 2010

Pedro Barros, a 15-year-old from Brazil, stunned the X Games spectators this week-end when he beat long-time Skateboard Park veteran Andy MacDonald, 37 and captured X Games gold by using 540 airs and grinding slides to reach a final score of 86 out of 100. During his runs, Barros did a melon 540 on a 7-foot wall to secure the two highest runs in the competition. He had the highest score in the first round of eliminations and then had a pair of runs worth 43 of 50 points to take gold. He also did a jump over the rail, but that is the 540’s that seemed to get him the victory. The Brazilian native broke a string of repeating champions in X Games skateboard events and amazed spectators as he dominated the skateboard park even last night at L.A. Live. "It's amazing," he said. "My first X Games as a pro skater at a place I like to skate. I kind of had it figured out. I just had to step it up and throw all my tricks in a run." He quickly added that it was "sick" to win gold in his first X Games. Barros captured the imagination of many with the hope that new, fresh crop of X Gamers are about to take over the current circuit dominated by long time and experienced skaters. Skateboard Park was actually designed to allow young skaters, like Barros and Curren Caples, versed in street style to compete with the older riders of vert ramps; all of the competitors were either teenagers or in their 30s.

What’s more, Pedro Barros, who was not even born when the X Games began in 1995 had his father build a mini ramp and a skateboard park in the backyard of a beach vacation house of Florionopolis, Brazil, located in the south of Sao Paulo, his native Brazil.

As a perspective, Ryan Sheckler was the youngest winner of this event at 13 in 2003, but the Brazilian Barros becomes the first athlete who wasn't born when the X Games began to win a gold.

Earlier in the competition an even younger face, 14-year-old Curren Caples, wowed the crowd and appeared to be on his way to gold. Weighing 75 pounds with a face that looks closer to 10, Caples inspired Ryan Sheckler-like screams from young girls in the crowd throughout his seemingly effortless runs that included a 360 frontside air that he had failed to land several times in practice. But Caples fell frequently, couldn't find his rhythm and clearly finished frustrated in the final jam session.

Pierre-Luc Gagnon won his third consecutive gold in Skateboard Vert and added another in Best Trick. Rune Glifberg, 35, was going for his third consecutive victory in the event but finished seventh overall. Andy McDonald won silver with a score of 81 and 17-year-old Kevin Kowalski won bronze with a 78.

Jake Brown took the gold medal in Skateboarding Big Air. It is the second-consecutive gold medal for Brown, as the event moved from the Staples Center to the iconic L.A. Memorial Coliseum. “To win for the second year in a row with guys like Bob Burnquist and Rob Lorifice is a huge honor,” said Jake Brown. “Skating in the Coliseum was crazy ¬it was like we were gladiators.” The winning run was on his second of five, where he flipped over the Big Air ramp’s gap and then stuck a 22-foot 540 out of the quarter pipe.